Word: cometted
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...Comet...
When Halley's Comet last streaked across the skies in 1910, it was for many an unwelcome visitor. Fearful that the earth would be enveloped by deadly gases in its glowing tail, people bought comet pills to ward off its effects, and held end-of-the-world gatherings. In 1985, when the comet returns-as it does every three-quarters of a century -it should get a friendlier reception. In fact, NASA is planning a scientific welcoming party in space...
Last week the space agency announced the award of $1.15 million contracts to Boeing and Lockheed for preliminary studies of a new rocket. Its purpose: to power an unmanned spacecraft that will intercept Halley's Comet as it sweeps around the sun. Known as the solar electric propulsion system, the engine could become the workhorse of deep space, carrying probes on far-flung missions across the solar system...
...Congress provides the needed funding, the probe will be carried into earth orbit by the space shuttle in the summer of 1985. Boosted by a conventional rocket, it will fly off toward the comet, gradually accelerated by its cluster of six or eight small ion engines, during the four-month journey. On command from earth, it will drop a small instrument-packed probe provided by the European Space Agency directly into the comet's head, which scientists believe is made up of icy debris and a smattering of organic molecules. Because comets have probably changed little since they were...
Next to Concorde, Meteor is a paltry piece of goods. The astrophysicists who must save the world from a comet attack include such garden-variety stars as Natalie Wood and Brian Keith (both with Russian accents) and Sean Connery (inexplicably cast as a NASA scientist). Karl Maiden stomps through the film in such a rage that you would think a hotel had refused to honor his traveler's checks. When the comet's "splinters" finally hit earth, wiping out a Swiss ski resort and a drive-in theater in Pisa, all Meteor...